14 Unbelievable Times Models Were Accused Of Cultural Appropriation

I’m sure you’ve heard the term cultural appropriation a lot over the past few years, and at this point, you probably know what it means. If you don’t, it’s okay, I’ll give you a quick rundown. Obviously, every culture is influenced by another culture in some way. But, cultural appropriation is when one culture or person (or model) steals certain things from another culture, like clothing or accessories, and use it in a dumb way. An example that you are probably familiar with is the whole “let’s wear Native American headdresses to this overpriced music festival to be trendy!” thing. Sure, you might like feathers, but wearing them on your head is not a good idea.

I know that you are thinking “I should be able to wear whatever I want!” but that’s not always the case. It’s one thing to support another person’s culture, it’s another to exploit it and use their clothing and art for your own personal gain (or Instagram likes). This tends to happen a lot with popular celebrities and models who, quite frankly, don’t give AF about appropriating cultures, and do it all the time, because they are famous, pretty and, have power. If you don’t believe me, take a look at these examples of models who totally appropriated others cultures…in the dumbest way.

1. Karlie Kloss dressing as a geisha for Vogue.

For real, Vogue? A photo shoot featuring Karlie Kloss as a geisha? In the so-called “diversity” issue, no less. https://t.co/bgpKXHw35N

This is embarrassing on so many levels. First of all, this is supposed to be the “diversity issue,” which is pretty ironic, because it shows just how much of an issue diversity is for Vogue. Karlie did issue an apology, but we haven’t heard anything from Vogue yet.

Again, people of color have been criticized for years for wearing their hair in dreadlocks, but all of a sudden when a white woman does it, it’s “fashion?” Marc Jacobs was under a lot of fire for this fashion show, and he sort of “apologized” but it didn’t really make a difference.

4. Gigi Hadid…again. But this time with an afro on the cover of Vogue.

You might not be familiar with the term “chola,” but it is what white people would call Mexican immigrants in a derogatory way. Recently, fashion designers have been trying to use the term “chola,” but only using white people to model those trends, like slicked back baby hairs.

8. Lara Stone in blackface for Vouge.

Source
Why not just hire a black model, instead of painting a white woman? This whole thing is a mess, since this Vogue issue was supposed to celebrate models of all different races, and only features white women.

9. Vogue, back at it again, with the blackface, this time on Querelle Jansen.Source
Same note as above. When will it stop???

10. This America’s Next Top Model contestant using blackface in a shoot.

Unfortunately, this model didn’t know her picture was going to be used for Black Hair magazine, but it was, even though she was white. She posted a sincere apology on social media after the incident, but it just goes to show that magazines would rather put white models on their covers than POC, even in a magazine aimed at black women.